Improved railway-track clearer



M. J. GOODWIN.

Car-Track Clearer.

No. 58,634. Patented Oct. 9, 1866.

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M. J. GOODWIN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVED RAILWAY-TRACK CLEARER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 58,634, dated October9, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, M. J. GOODWIN, of Boston, in the county of Suffolkand State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Track-Clearer forHorse Raihvay-Oars; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken inconnection with the drawing, which accompanies and forms part of thisspecification, is a description ofi'ny invention sufficient to enablethose skilled in the art to practice it.

The invention relates to a provision in horse railway-cars for removingobstructions from the tracks upon which they run, and consists inattaching to and in front of the brakes clearers supported directly overbut out of contact with the surface of the rails, and in front of thecartruck.

The drawing represents one end of a cartruck with my invention appliedthereto, A showing'a side elevation, and B an end view of the same.

(0 denotes the truck-frame; Z), the journalboxes; 0, the wheels, and dthe brakes, the construction and arrangementof these parts being thesame as in ordinary cars.

To each brake (l is jointed an arm or frame, 0, swinging loosely in avertical direction and carrying at its front end a roller or clearer, f,as seen in the drawing.

From each arm, near its roller, a chain, 9, extends, connecting the armto the journalboxb, the chain holding the roller or clearer a slightdistance above the surface of the track rail, the roll being by theconnection held in position relatively to the surface of the rail,

and consequently kept outof contact with the rail, whereas, if suspendedonly from the cartruck,it would sway vertically with such truck. Byhinging the arm directly to the brake,

whenever the clearer strikes an obstruction it presses the brake againstthe tread of the wheel, and tends to stop the cars, while, from the formand disposition of the clearer, the obstruction is either thrown fromthe track, or up on to the top of the arms 6, the roller turm ing and ha'ing a tendency to roll the object 011 to the said arms.

Loss of life or limb is constantly occurring upon the horserailwaytracks of cities and large towns from persons being thrown underthe wheels; but with my arrangement it will be obvious that a personcannot come into contact with the wheel, but will, it struck, be eitherthrown from the track or up onto the clearer-arms.

The mechanism is inexpensive, and may be applied at very small cost tothe cars in general use without any alteration or modification in theirgeneral construction.

I claim Combining with the cautruck and brakes ot' a railway-car theclearer-s hung from the brakes in front of the car-truck and at a shortdistance above the surface of the track-rails, substantially asdescribed.

M. J. GOODWIN.

YVitnesses:

F. GOULD, S. B. KIDDER.

